Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful
E268969
Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful is a depiction of the slave Onesimus in the New Testament letter to Philemon, emphasizing his transformation from an unprofitable servant into a valuable and beloved Christian brother.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Onesimus | 1 |
| Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2451596 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful Context triple: [Epistle to Philemon, portrays, Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful]
-
A.
Abednego
Abednego is a biblical figure from the Book of Daniel, known as one of three Jewish youths miraculously saved from King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol.
-
B.
Shadrach Bond
Shadrach Bond was an American politician who became the first governor of the state of Illinois after it was admitted to the Union.
-
C.
Cydamus
Cydamus is the ancient Roman name for the oasis town now known as Ghadamès in western Libya.
-
D.
Shadrach
Shadrach is one of the three Hebrew youths in the biblical Book of Daniel who, along with Meshach and Abednego, is miraculously preserved by God in the fiery furnace after refusing to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image.
-
E.
Shadrack
Shadrack is a traumatized World War I veteran in Toni Morrison’s novel *Sula* who founds the ritual of National Suicide Day and embodies the community’s fears and marginalization.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful Target entity description: Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful is a depiction of the slave Onesimus in the New Testament letter to Philemon, emphasizing his transformation from an unprofitable servant into a valuable and beloved Christian brother.
-
A.
Abednego
Abednego is a biblical figure from the Book of Daniel, known as one of three Jewish youths miraculously saved from King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol.
-
B.
Shadrach Bond
Shadrach Bond was an American politician who became the first governor of the state of Illinois after it was admitted to the Union.
-
C.
Cydamus
Cydamus is the ancient Roman name for the oasis town now known as Ghadamès in western Libya.
-
D.
Shadrach
Shadrach is one of the three Hebrew youths in the biblical Book of Daniel who, along with Meshach and Abednego, is miraculously preserved by God in the fiery furnace after refusing to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image.
-
E.
Shadrack
Shadrack is a traumatized World War I veteran in Toni Morrison’s novel *Sula* who founds the ritual of National Suicide Day and embodies the community’s fears and marginalization.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
New Testament motif
ⓘ
biblical concept ⓘ theological theme ⓘ |
| associatedWithPerson |
Apostle Paul
ⓘ
surface form:
Paul the Apostle
Philemon ⓘ |
| basedOnCharacter |
Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Onesimus
|
| canonicalContext |
Epistles
ⓘ
surface form:
New Testament epistles
|
| connectedToTheme |
appeal rather than command in Christian leadership
ⓘ
love within the Christian community ⓘ |
| contrastsState |
formerly useless
ⓘ
now useful ⓘ |
| describedIn | Epistle to Philemon ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
Christian brotherhood
ⓘ
Christian conversion ⓘ equality of believers ⓘ forgiveness ⓘ new identity in Christ ⓘ personal transformation ⓘ reconciliation ⓘ restoration of relationships ⓘ spiritual usefulness ⓘ |
| expressedThrough | Paul’s wordplay on Onesimus’s name ⓘ |
| hasKeyVerse | Philemon 1:11 ⓘ |
| hasSourceText | Philemon 1:10–16 ⓘ |
| involvesRole |
beloved brother
ⓘ
slave ⓘ |
| linguisticNote | Onesimus’s name means ‘useful’ or ‘profitable’ in Greek ⓘ |
| literaryForm | personal letter ⓘ |
| moralLesson |
God can transform a person’s character and usefulness
ⓘ
social status does not determine spiritual value ⓘ |
| portrays |
Onesimus as now profitable to both Paul and Philemon
ⓘ
Onesimus as once unprofitable to Philemon ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Christian view of slaves and masters
ⓘ
Pauline theology of reconciliation ⓘ spiritual adoption ⓘ |
| scripturalTradition | Christianity ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
movement from sin to service
ⓘ
the change produced by the gospel ⓘ transformation of social status in the Christian community ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 1st-century Christianity ⓘ |
| usedBy | Christian preachers ⓘ |
| usedIn |
discussions of Christian ethics and slavery
ⓘ
sermons on grace ⓘ teachings on discipleship ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful Description of subject: Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful is a depiction of the slave Onesimus in the New Testament letter to Philemon, emphasizing his transformation from an unprofitable servant into a valuable and beloved Christian brother.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful
→
basedOnCharacter
→
Onesimus as formerly useless but now useful
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Onesimus